


R'iia/Rey/Ræh

by Melusine11



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Back to Jakku, Canon Compliant, Gen, Hopeful Ending, No explicit Reylo, POV Rey (Star Wars)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-14
Updated: 2019-08-14
Packaged: 2020-09-01 01:20:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20249803
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melusine11/pseuds/Melusine11
Summary: To the Blobfish, she wasgirl, and so his subordinates and dependants followed suit. And for a long while that was fine, did she really need a name when it was just her? But then she stole a name, kept it secret and safe and held close to her chest until she set it free, letting it unfurl itself out into the universe until it wasn’t just for herself anymore, until it echoed back onto her sounding full of hope like she had never experienced before.





	R'iia/Rey/Ræh

**Author's Note:**

> I can no longer remember exactly who was involved in making me start this - there are multiple people who deserve the credit for pushing me to finally write this, even if they had no idea at the time. Anyway. Short, and sweet, and just a musing about how Rey might have gotten her name.

She lifts her hand, shielding her eyes from the sun as she surveys the land. For all her talk of going back, she’s surprised to find herself here.

It’s even more dismal than she remembers. It has taken them an extra standard day to get here, a storm raging, and while she’s sure the Falcon could withstand it, avoiding it was easier. X’us’R’iia. Pacing the cabin, she waited out the storm, recalling the Teedos and how they worshiped a god called R’iia. 

Her feet tap against the loading ramp as she descends the last few steps before transitioning onto the planet's sandy surface. Nima Outpost isn’t far, or perhaps it’s just another grave marker on this graveyard planet now. She won’t be going to check.

With a fortifying breath, she steps out from beneath the shadow of the Falcon. The sands shift beneath her feet, her tread more stilted than it used to be now that she’s so used to durasteel and planets with a more solid surface. The heat of the sun-soaked sand leeches through the soles of her boots and she increases her stride.

It’s still there. _Here. _Her fingers skim across the base of the giant foot protruding up from the sand. Cool to the touch, no matter how many hours of sun it got. The grooves of the legs, the gaping maw of its open belly, it all feels so familiar still, and somehow as foreign as it felt landing on Takodana the first time.

Sand has piled up against the hull and corners of the legs as well as swirling into the space she used to live in. Back when she was no one to the world she inhabited, merely a scavenger.

To the Blobfish, she was _girl_, and so his subordinates and dependants followed suit. And for a long while that was fine, did she really need a name when it was just her? But then she stole a name, kept it secret and safe and held close to her chest until she set it free, letting it unfurl itself out into the universe until it wasn’t just for herself anymore, until it echoed back onto her sounding full of hope like she had never experienced before.

She sinks into the loose sand, sits and pushes herself through the gap into her old home. Some of it is still the same, all of the parts she had been unable to detach are there, even more immovable to someone’s less skilled hands. It’s emptier though, her home scavenged when she never came back, door left open to let in the elements in her absence.

Hollow. More than usual. Being back here, she feels like she matches. Inevitable. She knew she’d be back. So much time was spent after leaving this place worrying about how to get back, and then when she had the means, well, she’s been putting it off. Too afraid to delve into an old wound, but it was finally time.

It’s still there though, haphazardly lying beneath her small workbench, where it’s been carelessly discarded. There’s a crack across the goggles, but she smiles as she brushes off the sand and lifts it. Fingers trace the faded paint of the name as she waits.

“Rey?” There’s scuffling at the entrance, followed by the sound of a displeased grunt and then booted feet hitting the durasteel walls of the AT-AT. “It’s smaller than I thought.”

Rey turns, smiling over her shoulder at Ben, looming in her space, backlit by the sun. “Smaller with you in it.”

He tips his head back to survey the ceiling, what once had been walls filled with panels and buttons and levers when it had been operating. Rey turns back and upsends the helmet, shaking out sand. It rains down onto the workbench with a quiet rushing sound.

The relief she feels at finding the helmet still here, as if waiting for her once more, is palpable. 

“Ræh,” Ben whispers, chin hooking over her shoulder to observe the helmet. “I know this-” he reaches out, arm brushing her waist to touch it.

“Of course.”

It flares between them, the memory. The bindings at her wrists and ankles, a threat, his mind touching hers, ripping this and the name, _her name,_ out of her before she rallied and fought back, taking what she wanted from him. And then again in a quiet moment of vulnerability beneath the rainy skies of Ahch-To.

She had seen him here then, and when she ran didn’t think she’d ever see this vision come true. But he’s here and this is real and he’s _here_.

“I -” his hand falls, and the silence stretches between them. She didn’t know when she had seen them there, how the chasm of perceived betrayal would stretch between them both.

His body is warm, almost hot behind her and she wonders how long he’s been out beneath the Jakku sun.

“Too long,” he supplies, and she crinkles her nose, stepping away from his near embrace. “I’ve been waiting, watching the skies.”

“Why?” She turns to face him, backs up against the cool metal interior and stares up at him in the dark space, helmet clutched in her hands between them. It’s clear by his expression that he knows she isn’t asking why he’s here, why he’s been waiting, she already knows why.

“I thought,” he begins, pausing to roll his jaw, gaze roving across her old home before settling back on her, intense. “I thought it was what I wanted, what I was supposed to do, who I was supposed to be. Who we were supposed to be.”

“And now?” she asks, thumb tracing the name again. 

“Now? Now that it’s all over?” He slumps back, watches her thumb move with a frown. “I think I’d like to be Ben again. I’m ready to be Ben again; to you, to your friends, if they ever tolerate me, to the galaxy.” His eyes meet hers and one corner of his mouth pulls up in a slow smile. 

She supposes she must have had a name once, before, when she was younger, when she was someone’s to name. But it has been lost to the sands of time. She thinks Ben suits the man before her more than Kylo ever did. She wonders if her first name was more fitting than the one she stole. She thinks of Finn, who had his name given to him and-

“Your name is yours, Rey, you _chose_ it. Made it yours.”

She nods stiffly, winces away from his thoughts, loud in his projection of them, a dizzying, relentless cycle of pain and regret, and having his own name forced upon him.

“Ben.” she reaches out and touches him. It’s the first time since the throne room, and he flinches. “Ben,” she soothes, “Your name is Ben, you can choose to take it back.” He leans into her touch now and nods, then falls to his knees, pressing his face against her chest as he begins to cry.

“You can still come home,” she whispers against the top of his head. His hands twist into the linen of her pants and he trembles. “Please come home, Ben.”

She knows how this should end. How she wants it to end, but it’s up to him. If he wants to stay on this dead planet, it will break her heart, but she will leave him here.

“I’ll come.” She lets him take as much time as he needs to gather himself, before leading the way out of her old house, helmet tucked beneath her arm.

Chewie is there waiting, pulls her into a hug, before reaching for Ben and dragging him in too. Rey laughs into his fur as the ramp ascends. 

She doesn’t look back as the planet fades to stars behind them. Content in the knowledge that Kylo Ren is now among the names of the graveyard planet that helped her find her own name.


End file.
